Around Dodge City and in the territory on west, there is just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers,
and that's with a U.S. Marshal and the smell of gun smoke.
Music
Gun Smoke starring William Conrad, the story of the violence that moved west with young America,
and the story of a man who moved with it.
I'm that man, Matt Dillon, United States Marshal.
The first man they look for and the last they want to meet.
It's a chancey job, and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Music
Matt, do you mind stopping in Jonas' store for a minute?
No, it won't take long.
What are you going to buy, Doc? Another diploma to hang on your wall?
Oh, another diploma to hang on.
Anybody can shoot bullets in the people the way you do.
What takes real brains is digging them back out.
Between the two of us, we manage to make a living, don't we?
Barely, just barely.
Hello, Jonas.
Hello, Marshal.
Doc.
Hey, Mr. Jonas.
What can I do for you?
Well, I'm looking for a saw.
What? You're looking for a saw?
And some nails, Mr. Jonas.
Sure, Doc. Sure, I'll have to fetch them from the store room out back.
Doc, what do you want a saw for?
See, Matt, looky here. You got a batch of new dervys in.
Doc, what are you going to use a saw for?
I bet they're expensive, too.
Here! Stop there! Stop!
What's that?
Stay here, Doc.
He's over there behind them barrels, Marshal.
Who is?
I don't know, but I'll shoot him dead if he moves.
Don't kill me, hind-armed!
All right, come out of there with your hands up.
Dear Lambert.
Yes, it's me.
I can't believe it, Amber.
I was going to pay you later.
Pay me later? You're on my books now for over $300,
and stealing from me on top of that.
Marshal, I want this man arrested.
Were you stealing, Amber?
No, no, I never stole nothing in my life.
I was going to pay him later.
Then what was you doing running off with that sack of seeds?
I had to have them seeds, Mr. Jonas.
I got to raise something.
My wife and I are about to starve out there.
Out where, Amber?
A little patch of land near Pawnee Wells North here, Marshal.
Ain't much.
We had nothing but bad luck.
I've been keeping you going for nearly a year, Amber.
This is a fine show of gratitude.
How can I pay you unless I raise something?
The man's desperate, Mr. Jonas.
He owes me money too, Matt,
but I don't hold with stealing to pay off your debt.
Well, I'll pay you, Doc.
Someday I will.
But right now we got nothing.
That's good land up there, Amber.
What's been your trouble?
Everything, Marshal.
First I raised a little corn,
then Pete Fletcher's cattle busted in and ruined it.
Then Mrs. Amber's goats swelled up and died.
She had two of them.
She always wanted goats.
All her life she wanted them.
And then some mean devil shot one of my horses.
Oh, I don't know what all, Marshal.
We just ain't making out very good.
Still no excuse for thieving, Amber.
You throw him into jail, Marshal.
Amber, you take your seeds and you go on home.
What?
You can put them on my bill, Mr. Jonas.
You mean you're going to turn him loose?
Go on, Amber.
Oh, thank you, Marshal.
I won't forget this.
It's a fine thing when the law starts encouraging crime.
I hold you guilty as he is, Marshal Dillon.
Come on, Doc.
Let's get out of here.
I'm sorry, Mr. Dillon.
You know something, Mr. Dillon?
Oh, what, Chester?
If the government would maybe cough up a little expense money, I've got an idea.
Oh, the government won't even supply me with ammunition, Chester.
But go ahead.
Well, sir, if we were to buy two or three buffalo hides and kindly sew them together,
we could make a nice rug for this office.
And it wouldn't make so much noise with people clomping around all the time.
Well, I tell you, Chester, I don't have to take that up with Washington.
In the meantime, you work on some other ideas.
Hello, Marshal.
Chester.
Well, if it ain't Peek Fletcher.
Oh, Peek.
Marshal, I heard about your refusing to arrest Neil Amber yesterday.
Huh?
Seems like a lot of people have.
I'm a cattleman, Marshal, and I got no use for sodbusters,
especially when they don't know when to quit, like them Ambers.
There's room enough out there for everybody, Peek.
Not for thieves, there ain't.
I don't think Amber will try to steal anything again.
I come to tell you, you're wrong, Marshal.
Oh, why?
One of my riders, Jim Baird, found a calf in Amber's shed.
Been stole, slaughtered, and half-skun.
One of your calves?
Wearing my brand.
Baird's standing guard over it right now.
Look, Peek, the Ambers are nearly starving.
What's one calf to you?
Now, is there a law against cattle heaving, Marshal, or ain't there?
Yeah, there is.
Then you do something about it.
All right.
I'll ride out and have a look.
I want that woman arrested, Marshal.
Woman?
Well, it happened yesterday while he was in town,
and if Mrs. Amber wasn't a woman, I'd have shot her.
My calf's in the shed, right over there, Marshal.
I don't see the Ambers anywhere.
I told Baird to make him stay in the house.
Now, you had no right to do that, Peek.
I got a right to protect my property, ain't I?
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Go tell the Ambers to come out to the shed here.
All right, sir.
I was thinking you'd never get back, Peek.
This is Marshal Dillon, Baird.
Where I come from, we hang cow thieves ourselves.
And it's been done around here, too, Baird.
Good.
The man that headed the last lynching got 25 years in prison.
You trying to scare me, Marshal?
I hate lynching, Baird.
I hate even the talk of it.
All right, Peek, where's the calf?
Right over here, Marshal.
She was trying to butcher it on the ground.
Now, a man would have hung it up.
There's Peek's brand, right there.
Marshal?
I thought I told you to stay in the house.
You're not telling anybody anything, Baird.
Hello, Amber.
Ma'am?
She didn't do this, Marshal.
Miss Amber, would you mind telling us about it?
Baird can tell you all you need to know, Marshal.
I want to hear what Miss Amber has to say.
I feel guilty, Marshal.
They made me feel guilty accusing me this way.
Oh, it's hurt her bad, Marshal.
My wife's an honest woman.
If you're innocent, she got nothing to worry about, Miss Amber.
Now, you tell me what happened, huh?
Well, Neil was in town, and I come out to the shed
to get a potato for my dinner,
and I seen that little calf lying there,
and I was standing here looking at it.
And then he come in and grabbed me and said I'd stole it.
Oh, Marshal, they're saying that makes me want to die.
I tracked that calf here and I caught his skin in it, Marshal.
She's just trying to work on you.
Nobody's going to believe a couple of things.
Well, I know what you're doing, Pete Fletcher,
but I ain't leaving this land, not now or ever.
Well, you going to arrest her, Marshal?
You, uh, you go on back to the house, ma'am.
Why?
My whole life I never done anything wrong.
Now I feel I ought to be hung.
She'd be better off dead, didn't I, Chris?
If she was a man, she would be dead, Amber.
That's enough, Baird.
I'm not arresting anybody, Pete.
Are you calling me and Baird liars?
I'm saying there isn't enough evidence.
Now, you take your calf and you get out of here
and you leave these people alone.
All right, Marshal, but the next time we ain't coming to the law,
we'll handle this ourselves.
Good evening, Matt.
Ah, hello, Kitty.
Matt, I want you to meet Lucinda.
She knew her.
Oh?
Huh, hello.
Welcome to the lodge, Lucinda.
Hello.
Kitty's told me a lot about you, Marshal.
I was hoping you'd come in tonight.
Uh, where are you from?
Well, I've been in Abilene the past two years.
Yeah, Abilene?
Why, you must know Bill Hickok over there, huh?
I sure do.
He told me to look you up when I got to Dodge.
Said you'd keep me out of trouble.
Well, I can't do that, but I'll tell you what,
if you ever do get into trouble, you come see me.
Thanks, Marshal.
Mr. Hickok said Dodge is a lot wilder than Abilene.
Is that true?
Well, I don't know, but you'll soon be able to judge for yourself.
Well, I won't be here very long, Marshal.
I'm working my way out to California.
She's got a man in California, Matt.
Oh, well, fine.
I hope you make it, Lucinda.
Thanks, Marshal.
I'll see you later.
Sure.
She's a nice girl.
Yeah, all girls are, Kitty.
Look, I just made $50.
Eh, I hope you're not going to put it back in the game.
No, no, I'm through with sales.
I might buy into that poker game a little later, though.
Well, you can have Chester's seat in a few minutes.
I'm going to put him to work.
Chester was telling me about the Ambers, Matt.
I feel awful sorry for that poor woman.
Yeah, so do I.
Kitty, there's nothing I can do about it.
You don't think she's guilty, do you?
Well, it can't be proven either way.
One way or another,
Pete Fletcher has managed to get rid of
every Nestor anywhere near him.
Except for the Ambers, huh?
Yeah.
It's like he says, they're pretty stubborn.
Oh, Matt, isn't this that fellow Baird?
Oh, yeah.
I was kind of hoping he'd broken his neck some evening.
Evening, Marshal.
Ma'am.
It's Miss, not that it matters.
All right, Miss.
I come by the Amber place today, Marshal.
You made a big mistake the other day.
How did I?
You sure did.
You remember how Amber kept saying his wife
would be better off dead?
Why?
Well, he's sitting out there now,
and he won't even look at you or talk.
And the woman ain't nowhere around, Marshal.
I think Amber's gone and killed her, that's what.
I don't know.
This place looks deserted, Mr. Jones.
Yeah, it does.
Maybe Baird was right.
Maybe something has happened to Miss Amber.
Maybe.
I'll soon find out.
I would try the house first.
Look, Yonder, that door is wide open.
Amber?
Anybody home?
Now, let's take a look inside, Chester.
I don't like the idea of walking into somebody's house.
Neither do I.
Well, there he is.
Yeah.
Hello, Amber.
You all right?
Hello, Marshal. Chester.
Well, how long you been sitting here like this?
I don't know.
Where's Miss Amber?
Where's your wife?
She went away, Marshal.
She went away?
To where?
Yeah, she went away back east, home.
When did she go?
The other day.
Did you have an argument with her or something?
Is that why she went away?
Oh, I loved her, Marshal.
She was all I had.
Chester, come on outside a minute.
Yes, sir.
That's Amber's horse down there in the corral.
That's the only one he's got.
I'm going to try.
I'm going to try to talk to him.
You take a look around.
You take a good look around.
I understand.
I sure do hope I don't find nothing.
Well, if you do, you come in and tell me.
All right, sir.
You, uh...
You want to tell me what happened, Amber?
She's gone, Marshal.
Did Barrett or Peek Fletcher have anything to do with it?
They said she stole a calf.
She didn't do that, Marshal.
No, I don't think she did either.
There hasn't been any more trouble like that, has there?
Has there?
Well, Barrett come by yesterday, but he didn't do nothing.
Oh, I'm ashamed about my wife, Marshal.
Ashamed?
I mean, her not being here is just too much for her.
She just couldn't take it no more.
Bet she shouldn't have gone off like that.
Well, how did she go?
She was married 30 years, Marshal.
I was real proud of her.
Of course you were.
Tell me, when she left here, how did she go?
She rode away.
You mean she took your horse?
Yeah, yeah, she took my horse.
Dylan?
Yeah? Did you find anything?
Yes, sir, I sure did.
She lay under a blanket right out in the shed there.
He didn't even bury her.
She'd been shot, Mr. Don.
Who shot her, Ember?
I couldn't bury her.
I couldn't get that near her yet.
Did you shoot her?
Tell me.
I shot her, Marshal.
Well, he still won't eat, Mr. Don.
He's gonna die of starvation before they can hang him.
He hasn't been tried yet, Chester.
Well, no sir.
He'll keep taking his meals in. He'll eat sooner or later.
Hello, Marshal.
Hello, Peake, where?
Guess you'll believe me next time I tell you something, Marshal.
What do you want here?
When they gonna hang Ember?
When an effort judge on a court of law says so, Peake.
He'll hang.
Meantime, I'm gonna burn that house and shed his down
before some other nester takes a notion to move into that place.
You do that and I'll throw you in jail.
What?
You've done enough to Ember.
Both of you went bad.
Are you accusing me of anything direct, Marshal?
If I could, I'd have you both tried.
Now, you better be careful what you're saying.
Oh, never mind, Peake.
Looks like we won anyway.
All right, get out of here, both of you.
Come on, beard.
Evening, Marshal. What'll it be?
Glass of beer, Sam.
Sure.
Say, Marshal.
Yeah?
That fella beard over there's been making a lot of talk about you.
Peake Fletcher, too, probably, huh?
Not like Beard.
That's okay, Sam.
Well, I thought you ought to know.
Thanks.
I'll get you beer, Marshal.
Mr. Dillon?
Yeah, what's the matter, Chester?
Neil Ember, he's gone.
What?
I unlocked the cell to bring him some supper,
and then I must have went off and got to lock it up again.
He took one of our rifles, too.
Well, let's go find him.
Waitin', Phil. Look.
What?
There he is. He just came in.
Over there by Beard and Peake Fletcher.
Yeah, come on.
Hey, I'm gonna kill you!
Hold it, Ember!
All right, put that gun away, Peake.
He killed Beard, Marshal.
He was gonna kill me.
You shoot him again and I'll kill you.
He's unarmed now.
I ain't gonna shoot him.
Hit him right in the chest.
Go get Doc, Chester.
Yes, sir.
Ember, Doc will be here in a minute.
He can't help me.
This is gonna save me from hangin', Marshal.
There'd been even worse disgrace.
Worse? Worse than what?
Come, come closer, Marshal.
I don't, I don't want nobody else to know,
but my wife, I, I didn't shoot her.
She killed herself, is that it?
That made me terrible shame, Marshal.
I'd hung rather than anybody know it.
You, you won't tell, will ya?
No. No, I won't tell.
Marshal, you, you've been good to me.
Thanks.
Dead, huh?
Well, you ought to thank me, Marshal.
Saved the law at the expense of a rope.
He didn't kill his wife, Peake.
What?
You did.
You were trying to double him off that line,
making her look like a thief did it.
And I'd see you hung for it if I could.
Gun smoke.
Featured and directed in Hollywood by Norman McDonald,
stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The story was specially written for Gun Smoke by John Meskin.
Featured in the cast were Ralph Moody, Vic Terren, Barney Phillips, Virginia Dreg,
Harry Bartel, James Nusser, and Gene Bates.
Harley Bear is Chester, Howard McNear is Doc, and Georgia Ellis is Kitty.
This is George Walsh inviting you to join us again next week
when CBS Radio presents another story on gun smoke.